for pheno hunting I write myself a rating score so I know which ones after 1-5 rounds of which ones work good indoors or out (or both)
like my space monkey is mold proof even thou it produces donkey dicks. Shoot I’ve grown her and it’s snowing and raining for weeks before and many pheno’s around her looked fried and she looked happy as can be. tbh if plants don’t handle outdoors they prolly won’t like my indoors controls since I run high rh/cold temps and some stresses like shit tons of organic pgr, higher ppm co2/intakes , airflow, chitin, wet feet aka not dry medium ( which pushes plants but def some strains aren’t favored of that .. bye)
I've not heard of space Monkey before but that sounds like one REALLY good strain for the RH peaks we get around here. I do honestly lose a least some of my bud every year to mold or Bud Rot, though it's not so much that I change much of how I do it. During the Summer and early Fall the Humidity outside will be at 100% with almost no wind at all so, you can probably imagine what that does to a chunky bud normally. But I really like growing it outside with Sun, and I generally just watch the plants that are the most susceptible to mold and if need be I'll give them some Green Clean. I'm actually happy to say that this year out of 30 plants I ran, I only had to use Green Clean one time, and only for a couple of them. I didn't have any mite issues this year as we buy Lady Bugs and release them on every plant, and they were breeding all summer long and I didn't see any mite damage happening so that was a win I liked heh.
The handling snow and rain applies to my grow as well, since we can get both in the Fall, though there's only a couple strains I run that really don't like that (Grease Monkey does NOT like that LOL, I end up chopping tops off and tossing them so it doesn't spread but that one does take a hit each time) but for the most part they all did really well this year. The "Wedding Cake Mystery Cross" I had a clone of this year took a beating though; Took forever to finish the flowering cycle and I don't think I'm running that again. Pretty small clone as it was given to us late season, and didn't get that big, but the wind and rain ended up knocking her down a lot, and she had mold issues even though the bud structure was really no different than say the Chem D so watching it not work in this climate was enough to know I'm not going to bother with that again.
these stresses ( think of like exercise ) work it’s just the borders of what the plant can intake but also even if it can some pheno’s def will produce bad traits or look funky from such . my keeper phenos I have to not be wimps like that cause I can’t think of last time I have ever been willing to do that or monocrop for reason of a wimpy plant. shoot everytime I tried and knew before it was a wimp it just never works out. ?
Heh, for a while I had to keep everything because I simply didn't have much for plants. Then I joined here and now I have the ability to be like "Nope this one isn't working out" and not have to worry about it which is a lot nicer I have to say. this year I had another GMO seedling that at first was doing good, but then, it started getting issues with mold before she even started to flower, and it was clear she wasn't going to make it so I chopped her and tossed her out. I try to be vigilant in the garden when I'm looking over each plant to see which ones are more likely to survive, and with the storms we get, not all of them really want to go the full cycle.
besides hunting and choosing the best for mold/bug resistant I will also suggest a prevention plan like for pest/molds is using biocontrols, I’ll use SAR biofungicide ( regalia ) and also try to fight any pest or mold by making plant as healthy as possible but also using biocontrols as my Allie like southern ag biological fungi as a defense on all surfaces against pm/budrot and other molds. Key is to spray the SABF after every storm if it doesn’t rain 3-7 days none the less ( regalia every 7 days since it gives SAR and rain won’t remove it)
anyways if you can quality control/check daily and have prevention measures like after a rain storm and u know it’s done for 24hrs , shake the cages/plant and get that water out of the sponge buds aka tops. crazy how much can be in there lol. people that don’t prepare and defend against pest or mold is why they can’t control it. exp for outdoors
Oh man yeah when it starts really coming down outside, and the wind kicks up and.... I feel like sometimes when I'm outside fixing up plants that had a branch get stuck from wind, I could probably water the plants with the sheer amount of water coming out of a large section of bud haha. When you think about how resin isn't water soluble it's amazing how much really does end up in there, waiting to fester and be gross. I do go out and shake them off too because all that water being inside a really nice bud, is going to lead directly to a really gross bud with nasty all over it.
I attempt to use pruning and plant shaking to keep mold down, but when it does start showing up, a bit of the Green Clean to get rid of that white shit is usually gonna happen, as it spreads quick when the humidity stays high. I have also shook snow off a few plants when we get early snow fall which, so far isn't that bad normally, but I don't like the idea of snow all over them so I go out and jiggle until I'm able to calm down (Seeing one of my plants get snapped in half probably is bad for my blood pressure but that's part of outside).
I had a clone of Bubblegum last season and I know damn well that is NOT a strain for outside in Michigan; Literally every predatory bug out there went after that strain. Like it was kinda weird how plants right next to it had nothing compared to that one strain. Worse still was that after it was getting close to done, the bud rot came in and left me with very little weed compared to basically everything else.
This is one of those scenarios where a good Cheese strain works SO well outside here; I've read how Blue Cheese is very good at pest and mold resistance, and that has been my experience too. I mean, eventually I have to step in and spray them for mold, but bugs not really much at all; They tend to be the last ones being affected by anything. Which is great. The Chemdog crosses and family of strains also do quite well, which is one of the other reasons I run them every chance I get; Chem D, and both Fiona's Chem Cake plants all did wonderful out here this year, and I'm glad because that FCC has been added to my list of favorites too.
one tip for outdoors no matter what strain is force topping a plant till it has 25 main tops vs letting plant have big ol buds ( indoors top 2-4 times) and force ur big bud plants to have more golfball nugs ( yeah big nugs look cool but outcome wise medium range/golfball is better in many ways) . majority of the markets commerical even favor the golf ball nugs . They sell better and def have a mold resistant by trait .Of all the years growing the biggest issue with buds having bigger size and nodding space that has donkey dick/2liter ontop is every season I would lose a huge % (budrot) if not removed too early in season. if you can force ur plant to remove that vulnerability (topping it/harvesting Tops first ) you can even run more indica and stuff vulnerable to such . But like everything if you know the plants true traits you’ll know if something is super compact and that too close buds on top. That budrot always starts under the big one and moves on like cancer. i remeber back in the day when I was a trimmer ( funny I was growing also but needed extra cash so I woild whore out trimming for others too lol ) many trim crews would wet trim, the harvester wouldn’t check for budrot and so many times u woild see people doing zero wuality control like for budrot. I literally saw people trim budrotred buds and u could see it in the core and I tried to address this to the grower and they didn’t care. It still sold and they woild even vacuum it barely dried . those days when people got 4K+ per lb for outdoors and it could be shit lol
Oh that's gross bro LOL. I admit I do LOVE the look of a giant ass bud, but you're right; At the end of the day that's a mold factory waiting to happen. I have learned that sometimes, a bigger top / donkey dong, pulled sideways, will actually allow that "section" of bud to open up as the bud sites themselves move upward towards the Sunlight, which opens the area up a little bit.
Chem D #1 this last season had a HUGE top on it, and I couldn't even reach the top to trim it up a bit, but after a hard rain and wind storm, the top half of the plant was bent over the wooden structure I grown with, and after that happened, the buds changed how they were growing and "stood up" opening that section up a little, which did great as I didn't lose any of it, but I've also had really pretty huge buds that sadly were chopped up and most of which was tossed because of that very thing of them being too compact for a humid climate. There's give and take there, but sometimes a little pulling to the side can help open that air flow a little bit to let them finish flowering.
The BBHP this year had such massive bud clusters I thought I was going to lose a bunch of her, but after a wind storm she literally laid down across the wooden structure, and it ended up doing a sort of natural SCROG, and I barely lost any of her which, was wonderful.
I've heard you can use bud rot weed for RSO, but I haven't ever made that myself so I generally just toss any rot I see. As you said though; After you grow a certain ones enough, you generally get an idea of what will happen, and can take care of that before it becomes an issue.
Damn bro that part you said about bud rot wet trimmed and bagged.... *Cringe* lol.
watching the weather daily and choosing when to harvest is another tip, so many times I’ll go to long or have to harvest in the rain. Why didn’t I harvest the day before . Those mistakes def teach ya timing is everything and What I’ll do since I know those tops are the only thing that I see that gets budrot Inless it’s a mold prone plant. since I hang dry if you hung the who,e plant it would have to be hung all the way to ceiling and be very wasteful of ur space if u got a lot of plants, what I’ll do is watch the weather and closet day before a storm and the plants are beyond 30% cloudy ( more amber the better ) and harvest the tops first, this method u can have ur plants dated, ph logged on the clothes hanger and u can put 5-15 branches per hanger and hang a shitload vs whole plant and they fill ur space gaps way worse. doing this method i can know my most vulnerable and quickest to be done the most valued part is saved but also gurateed. than I let the mid range and if any plants aren’t touched cause they aren’t mature enough I will let go out as far as I can. Good example is I’ve seen snow and had to harvest cause of showing of rot like late sept than look at this year I didn’t even touch my plants till oct 16th and ended on nov 5th. for years I had to harvest in end of sept and pray I could get my tops and plants mature before extreme weather ( shoot I’ve had rain for week to snow at end of sept.. ) point is once I learned once u remove ur tops u can make that medium to bottoms focus on 100% vs focusing on the to[s and than that you def can make the medium-bottoms worthy. I followed others on cutting whole plant and even been told by others I’m stressing them and it’s dumb, well it’s def in my face as evidence u let the medium and bottoms mature it will work mp and since they don’t have the vulnerability of too much node/ too big buds you don’t have to worry about that budrot ( like 90% I run it works even when the tops are vulnerable )
I do take a lot of time watching the Weather, and watching the RH level as both will have me ready to pull, and I start out with checking for that coloration in the trichomes, which is how I gauge what I'm pulling on any given day. I hate having to pull early, but I hate bud rot more LOL.
I started out this season with simply pulling tops that were ready first, and then those get hung in ideal conditions, to dry in about 60% RH and non direct air flow from fans and so on. Now, when the Weather decides it's time, sometimes I'll use a lower RH and shake the water off the buds as much as possible, and if need be, a small electric heater to make sure they aren't actually wet at first, and then raise RH after that so they can cure properly once trimmed.
I worry less once the tops are pulled as that not only is going to open up air flow, but it allows those smaller buds some time to soak up sun and grow a bit while I'm dealing with the tops. It can be a lot of work of course, but, again, I have no use for bud rot, and prefer to steer away from it LOL. The smaller stuff I'm a little less worried about compared to really compact tops where it's straight bud, so I'll put more of a plant on a rack when the buds / sticks are smaller VS when I'm pulling tops and can't really let them get too close.
after removing/harvesting top buds and than giving another 1-4 weeks on medium/bottoms buds ( if weather is cool, it also gives u enough time for tops to dry, I harvest twice and it def helps work and qc ) I would do it indoors too that way but I but my indoor plants are more lolliopped more cause of led and also my flower room is also the harvest room. shoot outdoors if u do this I’ll let em go to super cold temps and it really brings the plants colors out. Fun and if buds are airy anymore/non mature = not even worth trimming anymore lol
Yeah that's more or less what I do myself (reading as I reply) but once tops are good yeah, a month more for those others is a lovely way to go around here. If the PM or Bud Rot isn't bothering anything I let them go as long as I can so they get a decent amber color (First pull is the THC pull, second or third pull is the night time meds pull with that CBN coming in nicely) I generally aim for about 30% Amber for every pull, but, again, the weather can change my mind easy LOL.
another thing is when I’m harvesting I’ll bend and look down the branch and core nugs exp bigger buds and look for budrot, what I do is cut the branch and leave a node to make it so i can put on a clothes hanger without a clothes pin and put everything in a tout. Key is to not damage ur nugs and overload ur touts. This will solve so much before it’s ever hung. After dried (14-30 days under 60f 55-65 rh) Then when I’m de-stemming I’ll use a beam light or have a strong led above me and I’ll look at any big nug and that solved another qc issue . def saves ya that % and cross contamination
hope no one is seeing me as I’m spamming or pushing a agenda it’s just you asked and the reasoning of why I choose a pheno for me indoors or out is straight forward. No wimps and need to perform everytime
Yeah I am also the type that looks for bud rot, or any sign of it (If I see mold on a stem, I'm generally tossing that entire branch unless it stops at a certain spot and everything else is good) but I do similar to that, just I use the metal hangers that have 10 spots to clip branches to them, and then once I've made sure that branch is OK, I'm OK with leaving it for a while as long as RH is under control in some way. If I notice some of it is getting dry quicker, I'll boost the RH a little, and allow it time to get back to what I'm looking for, and then, once it's more that level, I lower it back to 60% so that it won't get over dry or wet.
And don't worry about spamming; You took the time to type ALL that out and it's good info.
Shit had I read that post 3 years ago I wouldn't have spent so much time figuring it out the hard way haha.
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